Primary Facts

Original Movie Language

The purpose of this field is to try and pair a language with the "original version of the film". Most of the time this is simple, a movie like Avatar is an English film with an English title. However in practice, this can be quite complicated and confusing.

Part of the reason this field exists is to be able to have meta data around the "original entry". It's kind of like setting up a default translation. This relationship can be very confusing at times though.

Bonjour Tristesse was released as an English movie in the United States and United Kingdom. Even though the title is French, we'll mark this one as English.

One last example might be Boy 7, which was released as a Dutch film yet has an English title. Since we're trying to pair this field with the "original version of the film", we'll mark this as Dutch.

Original Title

The original title is usually the title of the original version of the film when it is first released locally.

The original title is subject to change until a movie is officially released theatrically, physically or digitally, or until it airs on television. In fact, title changes are frequent.

For example, the correct original title for big-budget American movies is the title used during their initial run in U.S. theaters. When there is an official title change before the theatrical release, the festival or working title should be moved to the alternative titles.

Unlike some other databases, we do not romanize our original titles. The original title should be in the original script (e.g. Левиафан, 우리들). The romanized original titles can be added as alternative titles.

When the promotional material use slightly different titles (e.g. Twelve Monkeys vs 12 Monkeys), we try to use the title as it is written in the original on-screen opening credits.

One notable exception is English-language movies produced by a non-English speaking country such as France, Germany, Italy or Japan. In those particular cases, the original title is usually the title used for the first non-festival release in an English-language country. More often than not, the original title is different from the title used in the (dubbed or subtitled) local version.

In some rare cases, a movie will first be released in its original language in a non-producing country under a different title. It's important to remember than we usually favour the original local title.

For example, the Australian movie Cage Dive was first released in theater in the U.S. as "Open Water 3: Cage Dive." However, it was later locally released in Australia as "Cage Dive." We prefer to use the Australian title rather than a new title created by the U.S. distributor.

We usually prioritize the accuracy of the titles over a consistency between the titles of a series. That means sometimes the titles of a movie series won't be a perfect match. This is often true for the first movie in a film series e.g. The Terminator, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines.

The guidelines for title capitalization are language dependant. The rules for English and French, for example, are completely different. Please familiarize yourself with the rules of the language(s) you are editing.

While other popular databases can be useful, our guidelines may be different. It is strongly recommended to always double-check the accuracy of their titles.

We know original titles can be very confusing. Feel free to use the report button to ask for our assistance with arduous cases. :)

Translated Title

The translated title should be the first official translation (i.e. the theatrical/physical/digital/TV title).

The translated titles follow the same rules as the original title. The title should be in the original alphabet and follow the appropriate capitalization rules.

The festival title should be moved to the alternative title section if the movie is first released under a different title.

Note

German translated titles: German sources often add a German tagline to English titles (e.g. Linda's Child - Unterschätze nie, wozu eine Mutter fähig ist). It should be noted that we don't use that format by default. The title with tagline should only be added as the German translated title if it is the official title. In cases where it is not, the German tagline should be added as a Tagline and the long title (English title + German tagline) should be added as an alternative title.

When a non-English movie is released with different titles in the main English speaking countries (e.g US, UK, CA), we usually choose the title of the first official release as the translated title.

Locked Blank

The translated title field should be left blank and locked when the translated title is the same as the original title. Please do not re-add the original title as a translated title.

While we do not accept identical title, translated titles with very small difference in space, punctuation, capitalization from the original title are accepted.

Therefore, the translated Title (English) field for English language movies should always be left blank and locked. That's also true for most languages. For Thai language movies, the Translated Title (ภาษาไทย) field should be locked blank. For Bulgarian language movies, the Превод на заглавието (български език) field should be locked blank.

Since we do not allow English on English translations, when an English language British, Canadian or Australian movie is released with a different title in the US, the American title has to be added as an alternative title. A famous example is Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.

This, of course, refer to the original version of the movie rather than the language of the title. Bonjour Tristesse is an English title and the translated English title field should be locked blank. The movie could, hypothetically, have a very different fr-FR title.

The only exception is languages with two different translations (French, Mandarin, Portuguese and Spanish). They work a little differently. For example, a fr-CA translated title can be added to a French movie if it is different from the original fr-FR title, and vice versa. e.g. Avis de mistral (FR) → Un été en Provence (CA)

No Official Release

The translated title field should be left blank there is no official translation. Please do not add unofficial translations.

Exception: a romanized title can be used as a temporary translated En-US title for entries with a non-Roman original title (e.g. a Japanese, Malayalam or Ukranian movie).

The festival title is usually used permanently for never-released movies. However, in some rare cases, for movies without an official release, we might choose to leave the translated title blank rather than use a (bad) unofficial English translated title:

An English title used by a festival in a non-English speaking country.

An English title used by a film festival in an English speaking country, but not used by the press in any English speaking country when writing about the movie.

An English title only used on the website of the producer or distributor or in press releases.

When an English tagline is all in caps and without punctuation on the poster, both "This is a tagline." (sentence) and "This Is a Tagline" (title) are accepted.

The Translated Tagline field is reserved for the tagline used on the official local posters in each country. Please do not add unofficially translated taglines.

Leave the field blank when appropriate. No movies titles. No synopsis. No actors. No genres (e.g. Adventure, Drama, Mystery). No made up taglines.

Overviews

Overviews should be to the point, spoiler-free and brief. A few lines at most.

No (actor name) or technical info.

Overviews should be objective and neutral. Avoid using words such as fantastic, awful, box office success or flop.

It is best to leave the title of the movie out of the overview. "A live-action adaptation of..." instead of "Beauty and the Beast is a live-action adaptation of..."

No copy/paste from IMDb or other websites protected by copyright laws.

Good sources for overviews usually are press releases, press kits or the websites of the producers/distributors. However, the text should be edited to conform to our rules.

If you can't find a good overview, please leave the field blank. Do not add text such as "No overview found" and the like to convey that you can't find/add a synopsis.

Exception: An overview is required to create a new movie or TV show. If you can't find a good overview, you can add a dummy text as the overview as long as you delete it right after the item is created. Please don't forget to delete the dummy overview.

No links!

Self-publicity and any suspected wrongdoing will result in a ban.

Movie Status

Rumored movies are accepted, but it's better to wait until a movie officially goes into production or until an official release date is set before adding them.

In Production: Principal photography has started or is imminent.

Post Production: Principal photography is completed.

The status of a movie can be changed to "Released" a week before its world premiere.

Cancelled movies and rumoured movies without any new news within 2 years will be deleted.

We do not allow all kinds of episode compilation. The type of compilation that are allowed are, for example, random episodes put together into a "movie" (e.g. a Halloween or Christmas themed compilation). However, seasons split into volumes or parts are not allowed.

Runtime

The runtime must be added for each translation.

Only the original runtime since we don't support multiples versions for the moment.

The runtime should be entered in minutes (e.g. one hour is added as "60").

The runtime should always be rounded up, not down. A movie that is 93 minutes and 57 seconds should be entered as 94. A movie that is 94 minutes and 4 seconds should be entered as 95.

The runtime should always be all the way to the end of the movie, including end credits.

Budget & Revenue

Non-US movies: the local currency (e.g. Euro) can be put into a currency converter to get the value in US dollar, even though the value of the currencies may be off compared to when the movie was released. It's much more accurate to use the exact value of the currencies at the time of release, but we don't expect it.

Worldwide box office numbers if they are available. Otherwise US only is fine.